With today's highly advanced medical techniques, various organs in a human body can be diagnosed and treated using a medical endoscope without making large surgical incision. Endoscopic diagnosis and treatment are applied to, for example, nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, trachea, bronchus, upper and lower gastrointestinal tract, thorax, abdominal cavity, renal pelvis and ureter, bile duct, joints, spine, blood vessels, subdural space, etc. However, during endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of these organs, debris composed of blood, body fluid, gastric juice, saliva and cell debris as well as of fatty tissue released by resection of the affected site accumulates on the lens and results in a blurred endoscopic view, which often becomes obstacles to carry out diagnosis and treatment.
The above problem is currently addressed by rinsing the lens with purified water from the endoscope system or an alternative means, but such, a method is not effective enough for obtaining a clear endoscopic view. Accordingly, a physician has to stop the procedure to withdraw the endoscope outside the body for wiping the debris from the lens, and then reinsert line endscope into the body to continue the diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. However, withdrawing the endoscope greatly increases the burden on the physician and the patient.
Cleaning of a medical endoscope is often performed, using a pH-neutral dish detergent or a cleaner containing a zwitterionic surfactant such as aminoethyl glycine hydrochloride. Some medical facilities use so-called electrolytic water (alkaline water, acidic water or weakly acidic water) produced by electrolysis of sodium chloride solution. As examples of other types of cleaners, Patent Literature 1 discloses a cleaner for an endoscope, comprising a nonionic surfactant and an enzyme, and Patent Literature 2 discloses a cleaning composition for medical devices, comprising a nonionic polymer, a nonionic surfactant, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and monoethanolamine. However, the cleaning ability of these cleaners is not effective enough for removing the debris from the lens.
Furthermore, most of cleaners with relatively strong cleaning ability are harmful to a living body. Residual cleaners on an endoscope after cleaning is not desirable even in a small amount. Moreover, such cleaners cannot be used to clean an endoscope inside a living body during a surgical procedure. Therefore there has been a demand for the development of an endoscope lens cleaner with high cleaning ability and high safety for use inside a living body.
An endoscope hood is sometimes attached to ensure a clear endoscopic view. An endoscope hood (attachment) is a cap to be attached to the distal end of an endoscope. An endoscope hood has regained attention as a necessary tool for magnification endoscopy and therapeutic endoscopy, which have recently been widely performed. Such an endoscope hood (attachment) also suffers from, the same problem as an endoscope lens. That is, debris composed of blood, body fluid, gastric juice, saliva and cell debris as well as of fatty tissue released by resection of the affected site accumulates on the hood and results in a blurred endoscopic view. Therefore, there has also been a demand for the development of an endoscope hood cleaner with high cleaning ability and high safety for use inside a living body.